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I’m curious about how you learned to live debt free.

First I would recommend reading the bookThe Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. It was a huge eye opener for both my husband and I.... It was the first wise financial decision we made....We had it in our shopping cart and were going to charge it to our credit card, we looked at each other and said this is crazy. We put the book back on the shelve and checked it out at the library :)

~The first thing we did was sit down together and add up how much debt we had. I thought we had around $20,000 but in reality we had $48,000.

~Saved $1000 Emergency Fund

~Then we payed our debt off smallest to largest no matter what the interest rate was

~We make a budget and put a name to every penny

~We use the envelope system....taking out cash for budget categories....that way we do not overspend....when the money is gone from the envelope we know we are done spending for that category

~Canceled Cable...don't miss it....still don't have it, have basic cell phone, basic home phone we cut back on anything and everything we could.

~Squeezed every penny out of the budget to throw on our debt

~My husband and I started communicating about money....that was huge for us.... now we are on the same page and were and are intense to make sure we honor God with our finances

~Coupons

~and most important lots of prayer

Wishing everyone the best of luck.....be intense....and tell every dollar where to go!

Since Day 100

Followers

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Been there done that. It was not a pretty site. I have watched first hand a friends marriage go from it is over to we can do this when the right spouse started paying bills.

When I married my wonderful husband he paid the bills and was in control of everything dealing with finances. I had no clue to where to money was going. We both spent what we wanted and when we wanted. Resulting in ALOT OF DEBT.

But one day I thought to myself if anything ever happened to my husband I would have no clue to who we owed or even when the utilities were due. So I headed to the office and figured it out. Sounds easy but it took time. Turned out that I was one that needed to pay bills. My husband did a great job using Quiken and paying bills on time...but he is the spender and I am the saver.

Are you married? Is the right spouse paying bills.

Now we are a team, we make decisions together, never spend money without the other knowing and because we are on the same page and the right spouse pays the bills we are DEBT FREE.